Reflected Pleasures

by Linda Conrad

  Her mouth opened before she thought it through—again. “Are we in need of one of those extreme makeover reality shows here?” she asked with a wry grin. But then in the glow of oncoming headlights she saw the smile fade from his lips. And she felt like kicking herself. Why couldn’t she just keep quiet?

  “Ty…” Merri began again as she gently touched his arm. “You’re a decent man, with all the right instincts. Believe me, there are tons of slick fund-raisers out there who couldn’t care less about their charity or the suffering behind it. You do care, that’s easy for anyone to tell.

  “All you need is a little polish,” she added. “I’m not sure I should be the one to help you…but…”

  Before she realized his intention, he took one hand off the wheel and tenderly captured her hand within his own. “I can handle it if you can. I fully intend to keep my promise to Jewel about seeing to your welfare. You’re in a new place with strangers around you. If you can stand me reminding you to take care of yourself, then I can take whatever stuff you’ve got to throw at me.”

  The heat from his touch was frying her brain. Merri was half afraid that she would give anything—take anything he ever wanted to dish out, if only he would touch her more often. But even wanting his touch so badly, there was nothing she wanted more than to be his friend, to listen to all his secrets and to share all of hers in return.

  Unfortunately, her secrets had to remain buried. Ty had said, many times, that he didn’t care for liars. And that’s exactly what she was.

  Merri sighed and gritted her teeth. She wanted her new life badly enough to keep on lying to him, too. And she intended to force these new erotic urges deep into her subconscious, to be forever buried there.

  But… She also wanted very badly to find a way to help Ty, and befriend him. What a confusing predicament this was.

  “I came here for a new start,” she began as her brain raced for excuses and answers. “And I thought I needed to do that all by myself. But if you need a friend then I…”

  “A new start?” he interrupted. “Is there someone you’re running away from? A husband? Or a boyfriend?”

  He’d just supplied her with a great excuse to keep them from being anything but friends. Maybe she could fudge a little on this one and not come out and really lie to him. It was just so important for her to find a way to keep the two of them at a proper distance. Before it was too late.

  “I broke my engagement a few weeks ago,” she told him. “I’m not terribly shook up over it, but I do need some time to heal.” See? Not a lie. Not exactly the truth, either, but it was good enough.

  “Hmm. You don’t seem all that heartbroken to me.”

  “Enough that I don’t want to get involved with anyone right now,” she said with her fingers crossed at her side. “But I do think we can try being friends—try helping each other out. Maybe we should just leave our relationship at that for now.”

  “Merri, I told you that I don’t take advantage of…”

  Just then the heavens decided they had played around long enough. A bolt of lightning crashed across the night sky and, with a tremendous whoosh, huge raindrops obliterated everything in sight out of the windshield.

  “Uh-oh,” Ty said as he slowed the truck.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “The heavy rain is not good news.”

  “Why? The roads won’t flood, will they? And we’re almost home anyway.”

  Ty turned off the highway and made a second turn down her street. “It’s a good thing we’re nearly to the cottage, all right. We’re going to have a lot of work to do tonight.”

  “Why? Doing what?” She couldn’t imagine what he was talking about. Once she was back in her cozy little cottage everything would be just fine.

  Ty didn’t bother to answer her. He roared down her street and literally slid his way down her gravel driveway.

  “How many buckets do you own?” he yelled as he flipped open his seat belt and opened his door.

  “Buckets? One, I guess. Why?”

  “Out!” he hollered as he stepped outside into the drenching rain. “Find that bucket and meet me in the kitchen.”

  Merri gritted her teeth against the downpour and stepped out of the truck. She tried to find her footing on the sloshy grass. But finally she decided to pull off her shoes and make a run for it.

  She unlocked her front door, dropped her shoes and purse just inside, and dashed toward the utility room. She was sure she’d seen a bucket in there.

  Finally finding the bucket stashed behind some cleaning supplies in a cupboard, she turned and flipped on the kitchen light. The light blinked off and on a couple of times. But when at last it stayed on, it illuminated the full view of a soggy disaster.

  Water dripped from the ceiling onto her brand-new kitchen floor. Lots of drips. From lots of places.

  Ty ran into the kitchen. “Put the bucket under a drip.”

  “Which one?”

  “Any of them,” he said with a sharp rasp. “Then use pots and pans. Anything you have handy. I found a ladder out in the shed. I’m going up on the roof to see what I can do.”

  “Now? In the dark?”

  He flashed her a quick grin. “Worried about me? Don’t be. I’ll be fine. I’m not sure I can help, but I’ve got to try.” With that he dashed out the back door and into the blinding and blowing rain.

  It took Merri a minute to decide where the bucket would be of most use. She put it down and then cursed herself for taking so much time. The water was already fully covering the kitchen floor. Another few minutes and it would be an inch deep.

  She dragged out every pan and placed them under the worst of the drips. But it wasn’t enough. Next she pulled out the big mixing bowls and tried them. Finally, in desperation, she sought out the two glass vases from the living room.

  While fussing over the rearrangement of the bowls, she almost missed a loud crashing sound from outside. Ty?

  Ohmigod. He must’ve fallen off the ladder.

  Merri flew out the back door, dreading what she would find in her backyard. Barreling around the corner of the house, she slipped on the wet grass and went down. Face first in the muddy grass.

  Strong hands grabbed her shoulders and pulled her up to her feet. “Are you okay? What did you think you were doing?” Ty roared through the noise of the rain.

  She couldn’t see a thing. Couldn’t speak. Mud caked her glasses and she had enough grass in her mouth for a salad.

  “I…” she sputtered and spit the grass out. “Thought you were hurt.”

  Ty dragged her up into his arms and headed for the cottage’s back door. After he’d kicked open the door and set her on her feet inside, he tried to clean her up with his hands.

  As he removed the glasses and picked tiny sticks and grass out of her hair, it was all he could do not to crack a smile at the picture she’d made as she went down. “Hold still. I’ll get a paper towel.”

  He was back in an instant. Though he too was dripping wet, he tried dabbing at the caked mud on her face. She tipped her face up to his and let him dry her off.

  It was a temptation, gently stroking her cheek and focusing on the full, thick lips so close to his own. A temptation he fought to set aside.

  But he couldn’t concentrate on his promises to just be her friend. Not now. All he could think of was how beautiful she looked without the glasses. And of how intense they would be together during long, slow kisses and hot, passion filled nights.

  He’d said he wouldn’t push…he needed Merri’s friendship. But suddenly the fact that he hadn’t so much as kissed a woman in over six months became a truth he just had to change. Instead of thinking it through, he leaned in and covered her mouth with his own.

  She tasted not unpleasantly of wet grass, sort of earthy and much like the freedom to be found in childhood. But there was nothing at all about the kiss that seemed like his boyhood. The heat of her body next to his chest filled him with sizzling needs and growing sensual images.
Her kiss was like no one else’s in his memory.

  Merri made a strangled noise deep in her throat and melted into his arms. When he nudged her lips, she opened up to take his tongue into her mouth. Their two tongues danced in perfect harmony. As if each one had always known the other.

  They stood there, dripping wet, while the world around them disappeared. Her sweet taste and feminine warmth was wrapping them both in a blanket of heat and need.

  Oh, my darlin’ one, he thought dimly. I do want you. More than I want to admit. Maybe more than you’ll ever know.

  Instantly hard, for a second Ty thought about stripping them both and dragging her into the shower. Images came of slick, soapy bodies, sliding under the cascading water, learning each other’s needs—giving pleasure—wringing every sensual sensation from desperate souls….

  Whew, babe. The sensations and blinding images were all too strong, too fast. He’d promised her he wouldn’t—

  Lifting his head, Ty fought his body’s demands and stepped back. “I…uh…have to go.”

  What was the matter with him? Go where? He was here to help her clean up the mess and make sure the roof had stopped leaking. But standing this close made it impossible for him to think. Impossible to concentrate.

  Lord have mercy, but such things had never happened to him before. Never.

  “I mean, I should go back out and make sure the tar paper I nailed on the roof is holding in the wind. Are you okay enough now to start mopping up right away?”

  “Mopping?” She looked up at him with confusion in her eyes. He noticed her kiss-swollen lips and erotic flushed face and it made him want to reach for her all over again.

  Instead he took another step toward the door. “Yeah, mopping. Like with the mop…on the floor.”

  “Oh,” she said in a tiny voice. “I…guess.”

  She’d said the words as if she was cold…numbed by what had happened between them. But he wasn’t so sure that was true. The kiss had been hot, but he’d felt her holding back. Not nearly as desperate for him as he’d been for her.

  “Okay, then,” he wheezed. “Good. You start cleaning up and I’ll be back to help you in a few minutes.”

  He started out the door but caught himself midstride. He had to say something. Something about the kiss. But it was still a jumble in his head.

  When he turned, thoughts racing to catch up, he saw her reach out to steady herself with the counter. “Merri?” He took a step back toward her again.

  She raised her hand, palm out to stop him from coming any closer. “No, Ty.” Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and stared down at the wood plank floor. “I’m fine. But we can’t ever do that again. I can’t just kiss you and go on as if nothing happened. Not if I’m going to work for you…not if we’re going to be friends.”

  He’d never had a woman tell him no before. It stunned him. Plastered his feet to the floor.

  Before he could gather his thoughts enough to speak, Merri silently turned her back and walked out of the room. She hadn’t stopped to look at him, hadn’t even raised her chin.

  But she’d seemed so soft and vulnerable, walking away with her shoulders slumped and her hair all wet and falling down around her shoulders. The last thing he’d seen as she disappeared through the doorway was the mousy brown nest tumbling out of its binds on the top of her head, and dripping cascading water rivulets down her back.

  It took everything he had to finally move.

  Driving a hand through his own dipping hair, Ty felt the pain of being alone worse than he had in years. He forced his feet to carry him back outside and onwards toward the ladder to the roof. But he barely noticed that the rains had already slowed.

  He stood, with one foot on the bottom rung of the ladder and rain dripping down his neck, wondering if he’d just let the most important thing in his life slip through his fingers. But in his soul that idea felt ridiculous.

  What did they really know about each other? One kiss and a strong sensation in the vicinity of his groin, did not make for a lasting relationship.

  The last time he’d felt something similar was in college, and that woman had damned near stolen his integrity, along with his heart, with her lies and her cheating. He should’ve known better even then. Lies came too easily for some women.

  But he truly didn’t believe Merri had any reason to lie to him, she was just shy and a little introverted. That had to be why she didn’t seem to mind coming to live in this backwater town and living alone without family.

  He would definitely love to bring out the passion in her that he knew lay right below the shy surface. But Ty didn’t need entanglements at this stage in his life. He only needed a friend.

  Just a friend…dammit.

  Five

  Mopping? What the heck did a mop look like anyway?

  Merri stood, staring into the broom closet and trying to settle her nerves. Her lips were still tingling, her breasts still tender as they rubbed against her starched blouse right through the thin material of her teddy.

  She blew out the breath she’d been holding and leaned back to steady herself against the door. Closing her eyes and counting the beats of her pounding heart, Merri wondered if she was going crazy.

  All she could think about was the look in Ty’s eyes when he’d turned back to check on her. The passion had still been flaming in those beautiful blues, that was for sure. And she was real familiar with that lust herself. She’d also been beyond hot and bothered.

  But deeper, below the heat, she’d seen confusion and desperation in his eyes. Again, the very same emotions she had been struggling to conquer in herself.

  That need, that desperate need having nothing to do with lust, was what had gotten to her the most. It made her want to wrap her arms around him and cuddle through a long night. To smooth back the strands of hair from his forehead and soothe away the frown lines that seemed so much a perpetual part of him. It would be so easy to listen to his passionate secrets in the dead of the night, and to be that special someone who would be there to understand.

  Secrets? Hell. She had to get a grip here.

  It wasn’t Ty who had secrets. He wasn’t the one who was deliberately misleading everyone. He wasn’t the one who had gone to huge lengths to change his looks so he wouldn’t be recognized. And that was why she had pushed him away and forced herself to keep a distance between them.

  Merri breathed in a lungful of air and did get a grip. She gripped the plastic handle of what she was sure must be a mop and turned back to the urgent job of getting the water off the kitchen floor.

  It took a few minutes for her to understand that the mop wasn’t going to pick up any water until it was damp. But after a few inept attempts, she finally managed to fall into the natural rhythm of this mopping thing.

  Almost pleasantly monotonous, the push-swipe-wring felt so good she caught herself smiling. This was exactly the kind of thing she had longed to experience.

  No pedicures, breakfasts served on the terrace, or massages before bed for her anymore—no pampering at all. The things Merri wanted in her life now were alarm clocks, boxed cereal and discount store sales—the real world. And that included floor mops.

  “Hey!” Ty’s voice as he entered the kitchen interrupted her thoughts. “You’ve got a great wave action going there, but I don’t think you’re making much headway.” He grinned and looked down as the water she’d just pushed in his direction covered his boots.

  “Let me grab some towels and I’ll help. They’re still kept in the hall closet, aren’t they?”

  “Yes, but…” She started to say that she’d rather finish the cleanup job herself, but he disappeared down the hall before she could get it out.

  In thirty seconds he was back, carrying an armful of bath towels. “Here.” He threw her a towel before he went down on his hands and knees with a couple of towels himself. “See? The towels pick up a lot more water than the mop.”

  Merri froze and stared, scarcely believing her own eyes. Th
e man was rumored to have earned over a billion dollars before he turned thirty. He owned real estate in ten states and oil wells all over the world. His charitable foundation was destined to be a multi-million dollar project.

  And here he was, on his hands and knees, using towels to sop up rainwater from her kitchen floor. Well…she’d wanted real, hadn’t she?

  She dropped to her knees and ran the towel over the puddles on the floor. Following Ty’s lead, she soaked up water with the towel and then wrung it out over the bucket. Within a few minutes every muscle in her body hurt.

  What had happened to the muscles she’d thought she’d toned in all those upper-body workouts at the gym?

  Maybe this was a little too real. Just like Ty.

  It struck her all of sudden—she was lying to everyone in order to experience the truth of a real life. How screwed up could she possibly be?

  How on earth could she keep on lying to Ty and still expect to be his friend? But she had to…she just had to. One false move and the paparazzi would descend on them like ants on sugar.

  There hadn’t been much of a life for her before she came to Texas. But if the tabloids found her and ran stories on her sudden appearance in a small town after that fast disappearing act when her phony engagement went bad… Well, she could just imagine how horrible her existence would be from then on.

  And now—she had involved Ty and Jewel in her deception, too. The reporters would never believe they had no knowledge of who she really was.

  Her family would disown her permanently and forever. Though that wouldn’t make too much of a difference in her sham of a life, it would also mean that her few new fragile friendships here would be broken forever, too.

  But could she really keep these lies going long enough to establish herself as a neighbor and true friend? And long enough so that the paparazzi lost interest and moved on to the next “hottie” celebrity?

  Sighing, Merri ticked off all the things that could go wrong with her plan.